


A New World Order

by GalacticallyNonbinary



Series: A Troubled Kingdom [3]
Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Fantasy AU, Multi, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-01-03 18:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12152604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticallyNonbinary/pseuds/GalacticallyNonbinary
Summary: Sequel to Rebel Against the KingExactly how does one navigate a budding relationship? And what happens to a kingdom after a rebellion? The events that unfolded after one particular uprising. The events that create A New World Order.





	1. Readjusting

**Author's Note:**

> yes i did just basically copy the summary for the other one don't judge me.  
> this is a lot shorter than most chapters will be, but roman just needs snuggles and love

A few days went by, the kingdom still in shambles, but rebuilding itself piece by piece. The rebels had their first true meal in the castle. Roman had missed the wonderful array of food and was glad to return. But he watched the others stare in awe at the food, and slowly, he realized. They’d never even seen this much food all in one place. Working quickly, he piled their plates with the most delicious things on the table. Pieces of freshly cooked chicken, bread slathered with butter and jelly, (Logan in particular seemed to love the jelly) and warm soups. They dug into the meal ravenously.

As the nights wore on, they all got accustomed to sleeping in Logan’s bed, eventually moving all of their things into his room, to make it _their_ room. It was comfortable, nice, and warm. That didn’t mean that everything was perfect.

Soft noises woke Virgil up one late night. He glanced around him, and in the gentle glow of a candle, he saw Roman, muttering nervously to himself. Quickly, he shook the knight awake. Roman sat up, hands shaking, still murmuring, and his breaths coming quick and shallow.

“Wha-what if something o-or someone comes, I…I n-need to protect you, I…I…” Roman continued to talk, and Virgil grabbed his arm tightly.

“We’re fine Roman, look around you, everything’s fine, I promise…” Virgil kept whispering gentle affirmations, and eventually Roman had stopped talking. His breathing was still far too fast, and his hands trembled like leaves. As Virgil moved closer to the knight in the bed, he saw Patton’s eyes flicker open. Patton gazed at Virgil, wrapped tightly around the panicked Roman, and understood immediately. He placed his hand on Roman’s thigh.

“Breathe with me Roman, please. We’re okay, you don’t need to protect anyone. It was a bad dream.” His breathing slowed, but his hands refused to stop their shaking. Soon enough, the quiet murmuring woke Logan. He was far more confused than Patton had been, but after carefully studying the scene in front of him, Logan understood. Logan took Roman’s hands in his own, steadying them. The knight glanced around at the others.

“I’m…I’m sorry…” Roman sputtered.

“Don’t be. You were ready to protect us,” Patton replied, pulling the knight to lie back down on the bed.

“That’s how we know you care about us,” Virgil added, curling up against the two of them. Logan nodded in agreement and snuggled up with the others. As Roman tried to fall back to sleep, safe and sound in their arms, he heard Logan sleepily mumble,

“Our knight in shining armor…”

He was their knight in shining armor. And he could protect them from any danger they had to face in the morning. Right now, Roman could curl against their warmth, and let his eyes slowly fall shut.


	2. When the Sun Rose Up That Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow look at that it's me being a day late twice in a row this is soooo shocking. (i really am sorry!) also: changed my username so it'd match my tumblr url!! 
> 
> in other news, this chapter is really short, but it captured the mood i wanted it to. besides, I feel like we could all use just a little bit of calm and fluffy virgil with his boyfriends! longer chapters will be coming soon! (especially since my schedule is clearing up)

Virgil stared out of the window, smiling softly at the rising sun. Everything felt new and wonderful. He felt Patton clinging to his arm, Roman wrapped around him, and felt Logan’s slow breathing. With the others asleep around him, the moment felt as if it wasn’t real. As if it was being held tight by impossibly thin threads of string, and the slightest movement or sound could cause it to snap.

He knew that the day would weigh on him, knew he wouldn’t be this optimistic by the time the stars were twinkling in the sky above him. Still, his smile didn’t fade.

As days turned into weeks turned into months spent in the castle, Virgil had realized how long ago it had been since he’d met the others, but it felt like only yesterday. His entire life would be over in the mere blink of an eye, and he knew this.

But realizing it with the others wrapped so tight around him in this magical moment made the thought seem clearer, and more tangible in his mind. He was going to die. So would they, so would all of their friends. So would every single tree they’d climbed together, that bush in the clearing in the woods…

It still didn’t make him sad, still didn’t make his smile waver. Because he couldn’t imagine that darkness, not in that fragile moment when the sun’s light started to wash over him. In that moment, he couldn’t believe that anything bad could happen. Not when it was all so perfect.

He heard a soft mumble, and saw Patton's tired eyes blinking open. Patton gave Virgil a soft smile before cuddling even more into his side.

_Yes. Perfect._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was slightly based on the song 'when the sun rose up this morning.' we did it for my all county chorus a little while ago and i loooved it. the song is so pretty and the words are so meaningful.....god i love that song. look it up, it's so good!!!!


	3. Mundanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally got my shit sorted fellas! 2 more chapters, and that's the bow on this whole damn series!!

The four rebels had been living in fear for months, and it was hard to lead a mundane life at first. What was a ex-mercenary working for the castle supposed to do? When could a common street bard now tasked with improving the kingdom find time to perform? How could a knight occupy his time without evil to combat? Why did the wizard have to force himself to do common, boring chores when he could be casting intricate spells?

But humans are nothing if not adaptable, and they quickly found their rhythm.

Logan was confused the first time he found an unfamiliar piece of parchment shoved in his robes. His confusion broke into a grin when he saw Virgil's scrawling handwriting wishing him to have a good day. That night, Logan, Patton, and Roman all compared their similar notes, impressed at how Virgil's slight of hand tricks translated into him being able to slip them notes without them even noticing.

When Logan, Virgil, and Roman found themselves unable to sleep in the dead silence of the castle, Patton pulled out his lute and quietly plucked away until he heard Roman's loud snoring. Patton himself smiled, yawned, and fell asleep on top of the others.

Roman trained, hard. Not a day went by when he wasn't lifting heavy makeshift weights or jogging around the castle grounds. He didn't need a purpose to train for, he was just proud of himself for doing it. And if maintaining his strength meant he could carry the others to bed when they were too tired to stand, that was just an added bonus.

It became common around the castle to see brooms surrounded by a dark blue aura, sweeping the floors by themselves. Of course, Logan couldn't do all the chores with his spells, and the others made sure he didn't over-exert himself, but he was proud of the way he could make the dishes practically dance into tubs of soapy water after every meal.

Thomas continued working hard to pull the kingdom from the brink of destruction it had been teetering on. Valerie, Talyn, Joan, and the other knights trained with Roman, sparring in the front lawns like they had when they were children.

They didn't notice, but the castle wall behind them was lined with the heads of young children, peeking over the grey stone to watch the knights hard at work.

As she was sparring with Roman, Valerie turned to dodge one of his strikes, but froze when she met the eyes of an awestruck young girl. Roman took the opportunity to hit Valerie's chest with the wooden sword, grinning.

"You put up a good fight, Valerie! Unlike you to get distracted," he commented. Valerie, still frozen, just grabbed Roman's shoulder and turned him to face the wall.

"Look at them," she said. There was the little freckle faced girl who was still staring right at Valerie, but she was surrounded by other kids. Blond boys entranced by the knights’ elegant and graceful movement, little girls entranced by the wooden weapons, kids who were too shy to meet Roman's gaze, but couldn't stop glancing at the armor that glinted in the sunlight.

Roman felt his stomach flip. He turned to Valerie.

"Well, we need to do something," she said, gesturing to the children.

Roman wanted to pull them all onto the lawn. He wanted to give the kids the training they were obviously hoping for. But another part of him balked at the idea. He discretely motioned to Joan and Talyn, ushearing his three friends inside. When they were in he privacy of the castle, Roman took a deep breath.

"What do we do?"


	4. The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Talyn and Valerie were head over heels in love with the idea of teaching the children to fight. But Joan had their doubts, and Roman's head was screaming that this was a bad idea.

He remembered the day of the revolution. The awful stench of blood that hadn't washed out of the castle for weeks. You could still smell it if you were close enough to the stone floors. Some of the stones were permanently stained red. The battle didn't wash out of the rebels either. They'd never admit it to him, but Roman saw the memories of combat in their eyes when they thought nobody was looking.

Virgil flinched as he reached for something on a high shelf, grabbing his shoulder in pain. He refused to do the chore of journeying to the jails to feed the prisoners. Patton was still coughing up blood, and Roman would make sure to wash it from the sink when Patton went to bed. The three of them couldn't bare to leave Logan alone for more than a minute. In the mornings, when Logan would take just a second too long to wake up, they'd all feel knots in their stomachs.

Roman himself was plagued by nightmares and visions of death every time he closed his eyes.

And the others didn't escape his watch either. Valerie, Joan, and Talyn had jumped at the opportunity to train. They needed the sense of normalcy to stop their whirring minds and painful memories. And the three of them were always watching Thomas, protecting him like the loyal knights they were.

Roman hadn't seen Missy or Pranks, and he almost didn't want to. He didn't want to even begin to imagine what awful affects the battle had on them.

The thought of training young children made him nauseous. Training them to be mindless killing machines like the two that had confronted the rebels in the tavern, molding them into perfect little servants of the king.

“We can't just leave them to stare at us,” Talyn protested when Roman voiced his concerns.

“We can't do that to them though,” Roman insisted. “We can't make them into us.” They stood in an uncomfortable silence.

“What if there was a sort of compromise?” Joan's pensive voice broke through the quiet. “What if we trained them better than we were trained?”

And that was how it started. The next day, the gates of the yard were left wide open, and it didn't take long for the children to come pouring in.

“Are we gonna learn how to be like you?”

“Are we gonna learn how to fight?”

“Are we gonna learn how to kill somebody?!”

Roman gave a bitter chuckle and shook his head.

“We’ll teach you even better stuff than that.” The kids gasped, eyes wide with curiosity. Roman smiled softly at them. “You'll learn… Self defense,” Roman swung a fist near a boy, nodding proudly as the boy deftly dodged out of the way. “Chivalry.” He bowed to a girl in the crowd, presenting her with a flower. She graciously accepted it and tucked it in her hair. “And, above all…” He grabbed the hands of a young child and spun them through the air. “How to have fun. You guys ready?”

They cheered, giggling and clapping. Roman shared a smile with the other knights.

Roman found himself teaching a group of kids every day, and he loved it. He loved seeing the kids from upper class families finally letting loose, able to be themselves. He loved seeing the poorer children making friends and finally smiling. He also made sure to slip them extra food when they left.

Roman grinned at the kids who would celebrate when they learned how to stop an attacker and then would ‘beat’ Roman in a fight. They became some of the most polite children in the kingdom.

One day, a young boy was braiding grass in the yard. Roman walked up to him, lying on the ground beside him.

“You want to join the others?” The boy shrugged. Roman just nodded, and didn't push him. After a few moments, the boy turned to face Roman.

“What do the clouds feel like?”

Roman paused.

“What do you think they feel like?”

The boy shrugged, replying, “I dunno. Never touched ‘em. They look fluffy, but they could be hard as rocks.” Roman nodded, unable to quell the huge smile spreading across his face. “One day, I'm gonna fly all the way up to the sky and touch them. Then I'll tell you so you'll know exactly how they feel.”

“Good. Can't wait to hear it.”


	5. What's It All For?

It's hard when it feels like the entire fate of a kingdom rests on the shoulders of you and your closest friends. Luckily, the rebels never had to feel that.

It only took a single step outside to see all that their kingdom was willing to do. The citizens who had followed them into battle were inspired by the new leadership to help their community. Gardens sprung up around town, masters taught children their crafts in the streets, and things were, for all intents and purposes, better.

Nothing is perfect. People still went hungry. But now, the castle offered them dinner and a job. They couldn't make everyone happy. But they could make everyone's lives just a touch better. It was hard, and it didn't happen in a day. It didn't happen in a month. It took more than a year, and everyone was still hard at work. But they were hard at work for a cause they believed in.

A bittersweet ending, a perfectly imperfect bow on the package. We could end the story here, with a wide zoom overlooking the kingdom as it rebuilds itself, little by little.

But that's not what this story’s about.

We could zoom in, watch the lives of everyone you met, and you could see how they're helping the kingdom flourish.

But that's not what this story's about.

You can argue all you want, but really, this story isn't about a kingdom. It's not even about the characters.

It's about sunrises and sunsets. Stars and constellations. Songs and battles. It's about the connections made in mere moments that can knock the world down and build it better than ever before.

It's about a knight named Roman, who right now is running through a castle with reckless abandon. It's about a bard named Patton, strumming his lute and skipping after Roman. It's about an ex-mercenary, current official of the king’s court named Virgil rolling his eyes as Roman grabs his arm and drags him along. It's about a wizard named Logan, chasing them down and reading over the parchment that tells them exactly what they're supposed to do in the meeting with the neighboring kingdom.

It's about all the adventures they've ever had, and the adventures they've yet to encounter. It's about how their connection impacted the entire generation of children they teach, and how it will impact those children’s children, and their children, and how it will impact the kingdom for all of time.

It's about laughter and stumbling into each other and tentative hand holding and kisses spurred on by adrenaline.

Go hug someone. Go tell someone how important they are. Go stand up for someone. Go out on a limb to protect a stranger. Make a connection. You never know when that connection could shake a world to its knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no I'm not emo over my own story shut up :'(


End file.
